Strategic overview Visitskis command, roughly half of the Main force was after the war-council a sent to secure the clerics, brothers, nuns, gold, icons and food at Gleboff Monestry. They were lost in the woods and arrived later than thought. Actually, the had not even begun rescuing the riches at Gleboff as the french approached. At the road west of Gleboff, the two forces started to deploy for battle. My plan had been to stop the french for at least a turn at Rudnja (See "The Battle of Rudnja"), then NOT being delayed when taking a short-cut to Gleboff Monsetry with Visitskis command, beeing able to secure everything there and march of at least one turn before the french turned up. Now this went awry, and I had to fight a battle with a force I did not thought were ever going to fought it out by itself (this was my smallest force, only 74 points strong and only intended for looting and burning and the re-uniting with the Main force). So, the force was not near well-balanced, but now we were here, the french was here and It was going to be a fight! This was my battle-plan. After the Battle of Rudnja, I was not at all pleased with how my formations and units deployed and interacted. So I wrote down a small plan, from left to right: A unit of dismounted cossacks (to be a speed-bump flank defense for the carabinieris, as well as sharing casualties with them), four units of carabinieris in line, one 12 pdr gun (between my two biggest units to let the valuable crew share casualties with as many units as possible), a formation of two groups of dismounted cossacks (this cossacks has horses, but leave them behind the woods for this action). The french deploy a column on march, to race down my left flank, turn up into line and blast me! Seen this working well before in a game at the club I responded accordingly at once. Ok, the marching french was an to tempting target for roundshot! According to my plan I deployed a two-unit formation of cossacks in the woods. The french deployed a gun on their own. An very exiting artillery-duel commenced, killing his artillery officer and one of my crew. Much ground to cover. French voltigures deploy, one unit in the wood on my left, the other one straight in front of my gun. As for the artillery duel we ruled that round-shot did not split it´s effects on near-by units! It seemed the most reasonable thing to do, but so much for my plan. But, the enemy without officer and me rolling 16 dice and he 12 I thougth I should be able to win this one! The carabinieris in place in the battle line, the plan worked so far. Then things started to fail for my gun, I got the "damp powder"-random event. As I had no ammunition wagon it halved my artillery dice to 8! Now I was in a bad situation artillery vs. artillery-wise. I forgot that I had I mounted officer model intended for Visitski. So far he has not got his horse brougth to him! I fail to adhere to my battle-plan and deploy my last unit of dismounted cossacks in the wood. As the cossacks are "poor shots" and lacks Sharp Paractice the duel with the french voltigures was a very close affair. This way I hoped to gain the upper hand in the skirmish-duel (the cossacks are of course "in" the wood, providing cover and getting them to shoot better as they do from cover). Visitskis horse has arrived. The french column on my left flank has given up it´s plan and formed into line. The french voltigures has fanned out in their battle with my cossacks. They keep themselves out of canister range from the gun and volley range from my carabinieris. Bolstered by the confidence of riding his white charger Visitski has decided to give the french a bloody noose, earn himself some glory and smearing his enemy Lieutenant Colonel A. Steingell II:s reputation with his own success. He marches of into volley range from the french voltigures and has his soldiers presenting. This is the aggressive posture Visitski has intended for himself all the way! (already having a higher Force Morale I think this may have the french to retire, defeating one of his spread out formations with a presented first fire crashing volley from my carabinieris) "The bayonet is a good boy!". Visitskis eagerness to glory gets the better of him. He have his carabinieris charge towards the french (after bringing the voltigures in front of them to withdraw due to Shock)! After recognizing that his formation is in front of several formations of enemy infantry, cavalry and a gun he understands his folly and orders a retreat. The french are both checked and confused, but stays masters at the field of battle as Visitskis men retreat back to lands south of Gleboff Monestry.
Here I got the "surge forward 2D6"-result at the random events table. My presenting was nullified and I rolled high. In a moment my carabinieris position was very exposed, as I really did not want my best formation (aggressive regulars with crushing volley 2) shot to pieces and finished of with lancers I called the day. We game we played with four flags each, and random event on three flags. It actually turned put to go bonkers as my cannon was reduced to 8 dice and my carabinieris went of on their own straight into the enemies ground. A little waste on an otherwise more interesting battle than we thought it to be, Jonas having around 125 points and I 74. After this to random random-event cavalcade we decided to have four flags for all our coming games, as we had at The Battle of Rudnja, because it was so big. After the battle A quite one-sided affair from the beginning (Jonas even reverted one of his two cavalry to reserve to make it more interesting) who was, from my perspective, ruined by random events. My biggest loss was two artillery crew (both ended up "killed kill") while Jonas artillery officer survived! I both fielded a quite unbalanced force, and facing a 0,6 to 1,0 disadvantage in points this was an lost game from the beginning. Probably this was beyond the really "playable" odds, but even so a good game. The artillery duel was very exiting and trying to get something out of an advantage was fun as well, just sorry the random events did effectively end it for me. A good thing coming out of it was that I had a good chance getting the initiative as I had higher Froce Morale then the french when I quitted the game. /Shirty
1 Comment
John Lopienski
25/9/2019 23:58:52
Tough loss! The random events seem to be in character for the Russians but that doesn't make it any easier to swallow. It was a good plan! Good luck with the next game.
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AuthorShirty is a wargamer currently very into Napoleonics! His further plans in that era is Ottomans, Spanish, Persians, French, Saxons, Swedes and probably some Confederation of the Rhine troops. He also likes left wing politics, the sun and friends. Shirty dislikes right wing politics, dichotomies (some may sense a sort of self-critisim here!) and superhero movies. Archives
March 2020
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